The new MacBook's battery life and power adapter — When Steve Jobs un-enveloped the MacBook Air last month, Apple watchers were impressed by the “5 hours of wireless productivity” battery life. However, after putting the Air through its paces, only a few reviewers were able to be that productive …

iPod/iPhone firmware update 1.1.4 released — Just connected my iPhone to iTunes. More details as they come in. — 1:30: I'm downloading the software now... To download directly, the direct links are iPhone and iPod. (Do let me know if I messed either of those up.)

Microsoft's Live Poops Out … I got an IM from a source a few minutes ago asking if Hotmail and other Live services were down. Being signed into Windows Live Messenger, I assumed that he was wrong. — Not so. When I tried to sign into Windows Live Hotmail, during the Live ID authentication process …

An Open Approach to Search — If you didn't realize it, Yahoo! is embracing openness like never before: — Hadoop Now at the Heart of Every Yahoo! Search — Yahoo!'s Quest to Open Up — The open theme continues today as we are announcing that we are opening up Yahoo! Search itself.

iTunes Now Number Two Music Retailer in the US — iTunes Customers Top 50 Million — Apple® today announced that iTunes® (www.itunes.com) is now the number two music retailer in the US, behind only Wal-Mart, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*.

Kids don't like CDs: iTunes Store now #2 music retailer — iTunes has officially eclipsed Best Buy in music sales and now comes in as the number two music retailer in the world. That's not just digital music either—that's all music, including CD sales. iTunes now sits just behind Wal-Mart …

Facebook's Death Spiral Has Begun — Facebook's long, slow, and, for some, sad decline into oblivion has begun. — A recent report from The New York Times stated that the company is going to try to make it easier for members to get off the service. This is a clear indication that the social network's days in the sun are numbered.

Social network downtime in 2008 — This is a list of 14 of the largest social networks in the world, and how much downtime they have had so far in 2008. … As we mentioned in a recent report, Bebo's downtime has increased significantly lately and has had by far the most downtime …

WSJ: Internet Wrecking Ball — Imagine a town that has all sorts of gasoline pipelines running by it but only one gas pump. Rationing is inevitable. So are price controls. — Everyone gets equal amounts, except of course first responders like police and ambulances, which should get all the gas they want.

Wow! All Gmail Users Are Given Two Separate Email Addresses — You probably know how to create multiple email aliases in Gmail by adding the plus symbol and dots to your Gmail username but there's something more interesting. — When you create a Gmail account, you actually get two email addresses …